During the global pandemic summit, President Biden marked a "tragic milestone" of at least one million deaths from COVID-19 in the United States, and Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt Medical Center, joined Cheddar News to break down the current state of the coronavirus after such a monumental loss of life. "We're not ready yet for mission accomplished, I'm afraid. Although we are moving in the right direction, we're moving from this big pandemic phase where we had big health care crises down to more endemic," he said. "By that, I mean, hospitalizations are going down in a sustained way and there's been a relief of that strain on the healthcare system. However, this virus, this omicron, and its variants continue to be able to spread even among vaccinated people."

Cheddar's News Wrap

Not Ready for  'Mission Accomplished' as Biden Marks Tragic COVID Milestone

Welcome back to Chester's news wrap. Now you may think the pandemic is over. But our president says otherwise, President biden signing, sounding the alarm this morning at the second global pandemic summit. He said, quote today, we mark a tragic milestone here in the United States, one million covid deaths, one million empty chairs around the family dinner table that resonated with a lot of folks joining me now is Dr is discussed as Dr William Schaffner, professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt Medical Center. So dr Schaffner, thank you for being on with us. What is the current state of the coronavirus here in the US? Well, ken we're not ready yet for mission accomplished, I'm afraid. Although we are moving in the right direction, we're moving from this big pandemic phase where we had big health care crises down to more endemic. By that, I mean, hospitalizations are going down in a sustained way and there's been a relief of that strain on the healthcare system. However, this virus, this omicron and its variants continue to be able to spread even among vaccinated people. So there's a lot of spread but the vaccines continue to work to keep us out of the hospital and vaccinations will continue to be in the near term future. The key to controlling this virus. Alright, so from a medical standpoint, what still needs to be done regarding testing treatments and vaccine both here in the U. S. And globally testing treatment and vaccines more more and more. We need to vaccinate a much larger proportion of the entire world's population. Obviously by testing we can find out where the infections are and respond to it and we need better treatments because if you're recently infected we can now treat you with an antiviral drug that will help keep you out of the hospital. So we need more of that internally here. More vaccination. For example, in my own state where we're under vaccinated and all of those things around the world. Now, Biden spoke about that milestone of nearing one million deaths from COVID-19. But is there any positive models, milestones that we've hit or are going to hit? Ah we've hit a lot of positive milestones. Look at that those cases are going down, that's because of vaccination. How much research we have done on diagnostics, vaccines, therapeutics, public health aspects and we're now keeping people out of the hospital, we're doing much better. We still have a long way to go. However, in order to provide these benefits to not only the entire population here in the United States but around the world. Now experts warn that more variants will spring up around the world if we don't do anything to contain some of these variants and the original Covid obviously virus. So what can individuals do if lawmakers won't budge on their stances? Well, individuals they can make sure that they're vaccinated that their families are vaccinated, persuade their relatives and neighbors to be vaccinated for their benefit? The benefit of their families and their communities vaccination continues to be fundamental. How concerned are you about perhaps additional variants? That's a concern for all of us. We know that these minor variants of omicron are coming up, but fortunately our vaccines work against those. What we're concerned about are these big new variants that may suddenly show up as delta did as omicron did somewhere in the world. And then come here, that's a statistical event. What we can do to try to reduce that risk Has helped everybody else around the world to get vaccinated. We are a global village now, the World Health Organization has a target of vaccinating 70%. Just make sure I'm reading that right, 70% of the world by June, what are the chances of that happening. ken that's an aspirational goal that will keep everybody motivated to do their best. But uh, I don't know whether we're going to meet that goal, but we should all work toward it. How do you change the mindset of those who have given up, who have covid fatigue, who have heard in the past that were out of this. But now we're hearing that we're not quite out of it. How do we change their mindset to take this more seriously? Now, more than ever, we take first of all their concerns very seriously. And then we ask them what their major issues are and try to provide them not only the facts, but a sense of comfort and reassurance that by getting vaccinated, they will help not only themselves, but everyone. All right, Dr William Schaffner, professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt Medical Center, doctor. It's always a pleasure to have you on. Thank you for sharing your expertise and wisdom.